MTG Salvation

Can't be real. Hitting creatures with flying is green, direct damage is red, and while fireball may be uncommon at the same cost, it can't hit creatures and players at the same time without significantly more of a mana investment (all while in a color that does that as its thing).

So... WW now has a weenie that makes other weenies cantrip? He doesn't interact well with lords, but he should still be run with anything running white and little dudes, IMO

Quote from Lork

Probably not, but she'll almost certainly lead you along until you can use your soul for some end to benefit herself.

So... she will marry him?

Quote from Achilles

Part of the card's appeal is the versatility. Even though each of my creatures has only mild etb effects in their own right, their sum total becomes pretty impressive. So a turn 2 Wall of Omens can followed up by a turn 3 metamorph against aggro to have two good blockers and draw another card. It's SUPER useful with a Tumble Magnet, particularly when the magnet is about to run out of counters. Late game, morphing a Sun Titan is often backbreaking. And let's not forget that as you've already pointed out, perhaps the very best option is hitting an opponent's sword or batterskull. If you think about it, everyone is primarily concerned with caw-blade right now. Caw-blade dedicates 7-8 slots to Stoneforge Mystic and various equipments. If we run 2-3 slots that are metamoprhs we essentially get the same benefit while freeing up several slots for our own deck.

I have to say though, that I'm about to try something new. I take back everything I said about Ratchet Bomb being great. My friend pointed out that it sucks against splinter twin. Think about it--
Me: turn 2: Ratchet bomb
Them: Turn 2: whatever
Me Turn 3: whatever
Them: turn 3: nothing
Me: Turn 4: whatever
Them: flash in Deceiver Exarch at eot, tapping ratchet bomb
Them: Turn 4: Cast Splinter Twin and still win the game.

It doesn't help against splinter twin at all.

As such, I think I may go with Leonin Relic-Warders in the main in place of Lone Missionary (in prep for playing against Caw-blade) and also replace ratchet bomb with Suture Priest which serves the dual purpose of ACTUALLY stopping Splinter Twin and also provides the three card infinite life combo with Suture Priest + Leonin Relic-Warder + Phyrexian Metamorph

So side out the bombs for the priest in your side (something I should probably work in).

Quote from Achilles

I find myself agreeing with a lot of monkey's comments in general, so take that for what its worth; however one thing that no one seems to be discussing in this deck is the one weakness that this deck has had ever since oblivion ring rotated-- planeswalkers. As you know I'm a big advocate of mortarpod. I'm not saying you have to run it, but I'm very interested to hear how ya'll are dealing with jace, venser, koth, tez, and karn without it.

Also, I'm sorry to call anyone out specifically but I have to say, brother of alara, I just dont buy it dude. Your mana curve is way too high with too little early game to survive against some of tye faster decks in the format. Could you please post some SPECIFIC results from an fnm something more competitive than goldfishing? If I'm wrong I'll gladly eat my words, but I want to see some proof.

Also, anyonw else tried out dismember yet? I'd like to know if it has worked as well for anyone else as it did for me. I cant make it to fnm tonight, but I wish all of tye rest of you good luck!

Edit: @ brother: ratchet bomb is good, I will give you that. It has replaced journey in my liat as a 2 of, but I think 4 might be ovetkill. Also, please tell us what you played against in your writeup.

You're fine, I've been hoping for specific criticism. Maybe I've just been outrageously lucky these months I've been testing, but I've had almost no trouble dealing with early-mid game threats, even if I'm stuck on 4-5 lands for too many turns. I've never been unsatisfied with 4 ratchet bombs in the main - opponents absolutely hate it because they never expect a full set. My favorite has been "pop the bomb for three, tap two, drop ratchet bomb." If it didn't hit all non-land permanents, I'd probably side ~3. But as-is, it always has targets, even if it's just one important target. Even against control, it's a nice, easy out against someone who's overcommitting their squawks. That, and since fast infect decks (immune to our life-gainers) are pretty tight lists, it's a powerful g-1 advantage.

As for testing, sad to say, I haven't been able to run it through the gauntlets. Life getting in the way, and all that. I can say my build has handily trumped the gauntlet of decent-to-good rogue and mono-w caw-blade decks at that FNM. That may not mean much here, but I was never short of options - be they control pieces, or enough finishers to wrap up the game. Feel free to judge the deck on what it hasn't faced yet, but looking at what it has, and how it's excelled at it, I feel I have a very powerful list here, even if tweaks are probably warranted.

Finally, and someone please enlighten me on this one, but I'm completely failing to see the excitement, or even the usefulness, of mortarpod. I don't see how it can deal with 'walkers that are keeping themselves at moderately healthy levels (2-3+), and aside from random pests at 1 toughness, I don't see its usefulness in dealing with creatures, either, especially since, after the first shot it's card disadvantage for us. Like I said, maybe I'm missing something, but I just don't see why it's being discussed in a serious, non-budget deck.

I feel it comes down to the fact that we simply have better options, especially at the 6-drop slot. I'm going to lose her for another Revoker in the side. With more playtesting, I'm feeling more and more every time I draw her that I'd rather see a Wurmcoil Engine, or a Sun Titan, or a Baneslayer Angel, or a Gideon. Basically, any other finisher.

Do we have any more testing results to post? The list I posted earlier took me to a second-place finish at my FNM a couple weeks back. My only two losses that night were against and elf/Vengevine/shaman deck. It was surprisingly resilient, and managed to live through multiple DoJ's, walls, and finishers before winning. Not sure what else I can run that would win me that without losing to the rest of the field.

I'm into winning, not shenanigans, no offense. The only card I'd want to bounce is my wall, but I prefer my walls to be in play so they can block for me.

Why should I run Elspeth when she'll wipe my board just as well as my opponent's? I'm not going to run her and a bounce package just so she hurts me slightly less. That pretty much defines "inefficient."

Gideon is and has been one of the greatest pieces of this deck. He's a creature that doesn't die to a DoJ against control/combo, immune to creature removal from fast, aggro decks while shutting down their primary means of killing me, and he fits comfortably into my curve, all of this while not destroying my side of the board. I'm sorry, but I see no reason whatsoever to lose Gideon for Elspeth.

Condemn is in my mainboard, and it is very useful against infect's almighty turn two/three. A question I have is, am I running the right amount of removal? Am I too light/too heavy?

Now that I have more time to do this, here's my deck and my breakdown:



Despite the 2-of nature of my finishers, this deck has been amazingly consistent. There is no real "God draw," but virtually any hand with lands is a keeper. Early threats are rarely problems - my maindecked ascensions tend to draw my opponents into overcommitting the board, only to fall prey to a well-timed Day. In other cases, I'm typically saved from an early demise by walls and bombs. As for even faster decks, with a turn-2 kill possible thanks to infect, my condemns have been absolute lifesavers, through and through; I really don't get the hate it's getting on this thread.

Now, some of you are probably thinking I should up my finishers to 3-and 4-ofs, losing a couple to make space. To which I say no: being hit by an early Surgical Extraction after a discard spell is not how this deck wins. By having low densities of my finishers, I'm much more insulated from the devastating loss of a single finisher if I have 10 other cards I can count on to win my games. It also helps against Revoker-type cards, and one-shot hate cards (I'm looking at you, Pistus Strike and Plummet).

I've also noticed I run many more finishers than most posters. And after a great deal of testing, I am happy with the current amount of them. Having several means that a Jace-lock is less likely to be as effective as JTMS's controller hopes, and a well-placed Journey is slightly less devastating.

I do have some questions and still definitely open to suggestions. First, my one-of Sunblast Angel has been... less than stellar, but the results are inconclusive. I see some lists running some; is she worth keeping, or dropping? Is 4 the right number of chalices? Are tech edges still techy in this standard (my results have been inconclusive)? I need to up my number of Revokers - what should I drop, going off of everyone's testing results? Is a one-of Maze the right number?

Any and all input is appreciated.

Quote from monkeysammich

Brother of Alara: How do you keep early threats off of you? Say you don't find a Wall of Omens early... you're kind of wide open. Maybe I'm missing something

Being that open rarely bothers me - Condemns, Walls, Bombs, and DoJ's. I have yet to feel "rushed" in the early game, especially with fatty lifelinkers to drop lategame. Even if I don't find them in particular, my titans fetch back my walls/bombs, and Gideon ensures I'll *probably* never get attacked again.

I've been reading this thread, and I'm not a fan of the direction a lot of lists have taken. Squawks, swords, and stoneforge mystic just makes it a mono-W knock-off of Cawblade. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just feel it belongs in that forum, not here. The love for that, though, is dying down, I see.

That said, this is my take. I have plenty of artifact hate to hate-out caw-blades and the odd rogue artifact-heavy decks I see now and again.

What do you think? I'd love to give more details as to my card choices (and I have given it a lot of thought), but I have to run to work, and will discuss it later.

What started out as a budget deck I built when I was poor, built when I was selling off the money pieces of my old decks has become an intriguingly consistent, powerful take on an old archetype. Where it lacks the strength that two-color control has, it makes up for in sheer survivability and consistency in the most utility color in Standard: White.



You might notice the deck has a relatively high concentration but low density of individual end-game threats. The reason for this is multi-fold: First, the high concentration is a soft defense against an attempted JTMS lock, a possibly devastating move against many decks. Second, the low density of the finishers (i.e., no 4-of's) is a much harder counter to Surgical Extraction-type cards. The loss of Gideon or the Angel hurts, but I still have several others to draw up. Finally, having many finishers means that you always have a good shot of drawing one against aggro-type decks, an essential step to tying up combat, especially after a well-timed Day of Judgment.

You might also notice a large amount of artifact hate in this deck. Well, this block being Mirrodin/Phyrexia, and given the presence of several powerful artifacts, their presence should be fairly well justified.

What I am looking for is input to bring this as close to tier-1 as possible. I've noticed a strong MU against caw-blade variants, and a near-win versus most rogue decks, too.

My biggest questions are as follows: should I keep Tectonic Edges, or throw them out in favor of more Plains, or one or two more Mazes? I know I need at least 3, probably 4, Phyrexian Revokers, but what do I cut to find them more room?

I've always interpreted "whispering" in fantasy to imply someone who's sly, cunning, and subtle. And let me just say, there's absolutely nothing subtle about her. If I were naming her, it would be more along the lines of "Sheoldred, One Screaming into a Megaphone in Your Ear." Only subtler.

Not sure what to think about the myr construct yet, but that arbiter? Hello fetch-hater. That's actually pretty terrifying to see when playing fetches...

I rather enjoy the thought of playing that giant targeting an infect dude and terrorizing my opponent mercilessly

Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! This is full of WIN and AWESOME!

Also, totally called it a few days ago